Sonos' Debut Headphones Are Definitely Worth The Wait
Sonos, the renowned audio company known best for its speakers, has finally revealed its first-ever pair of headphones, the Ace. We’ve known for some time that Sonos has been working on a pair of high-end cans. I spent some quality time with the Sonos Ace at an NYC event recently and left impressed by its comfort and ANC.
By pricing the Ace at $450, the company puts them among other premium headphones like Sony’s WH-1000XM5 or Master & Dynamic’s MW75. CEO Patrick Spence said that comfort, ANC, and sound were the three design points Sonos wanted to hit with the Ace.
At 312g, these aren’t the lightest headphones you’ll come across. Sony’s flagship headphones are much lighter at 250g, but the memory foam in the headband and earcups make the Ace incredibly comfortable. I haven’t worn them for hours yet, but the weight distribution felt very balanced in my short time with them.
The Ace sports a thoughtful design. It uses as little metal as possible to not bump the weight too high, along with extremely generous padding. The memory foam padding is wrapped with vegan leather for added comfort. The extenders and controls are the only two places with metal on these headphones, and I loved the extenders’ look and feel. They’re minimal and classy and help with adding a little flair to the cans.
I love that the extenders’ hinges are concealed inside the earcup. The Sonos team said this was done so the extender wouldn’t catch on your hair. I ran into this with JBL’s flagship, Live 770NC, which would aggressively tug at my hair whenever I tried to remove it.
The feature Sonos seemed most proud of and conducted not one but two sessions during my demo is Ace’s ability to seamlessly work with the Sonos $900 Arc soundbar. The headphones sport a Control Key that handles playback, calls, and TV audio swap. It instantly switches audio from the Arc soundbar to the Ace when pressed and held. I tried this while watching Barbie and cycled the audio between the Arc and the Ace a few times. It’s a nice feature if you plan to invest in the Sonos ecosystem.
I listened to a 10-minute test audio while the room played pretty bass-heavy, low-end white noise on a bunch of Sonos 300 speakers scattered throughout the room. The noise-canceling on the Ace was excellent, and the ambient mode was equally efficient in helping me stay aware of my surroundings. I’m excited to test it outside this controlled environment and in the real world.
As for battery life, Sonos claims 30 hours on a full charge with ANC and “25% more than that” with ANC off. The Ace is now available for pre-ordering at Best Buy and the Sonos website.
